---
title: "Placeholders"
url: https://getstell.com/glossary/placeholders
description: "Personalization variables in a message, written as double-brace tokens, that fill in each member's own values at send time."
---

# Placeholders

Placeholders are the variables in a message. A [campaign](/glossary/campaign) or [automation](/glossary/automation) is written once, with tokens like `{{firstName}}` or `{{points}}` where member-specific values belong, and at send time each member's own data fills them in. "You have `{{points}}` points waiting" becomes a different, true sentence for every recipient.

The values come from the program's member state, the same data the pass itself displays: name, points, stamps, tier, and custom attributes synced from the CRM. That shared source matters, because a personalized message and the pass it arrives on should never disagree; a message announcing 1,200 points above a pass showing 1,200 points reads as one system telling the truth.

In a message editor, placeholders typically appear as chips rather than raw braces, which keeps them from being mangled mid-token while editing. Two practices keep them trustworthy. First, mind the fallback: a message that renders "Hi `{{firstName}}`" or "Hi ," to members with missing data has leaked its plumbing, so define what happens when a value is absent. Second, personalize with data the member gave the program knowingly; a message that reveals surprising knowledge reads as surveillance, not service.

Used well, placeholders are what separate messaging from broadcasting: combined with [segments](/glossary/segment), they let one composed message arrive as thousands of individually accurate ones.